Survival Course Marketing Plan: Strategy and Analysis
This paper presents a comprehensive marketing plan for a company offering a series of survival courses based in the Pacific Northwest. Drawing on post-9/11 and post-Katrina demand for disaster preparedness training, the plan identifies two core target markets — private consumers and corporate employee assistance programs — and outlines a full situational analysis, SWOT assessment, competitive landscape review, product offerings, pricing strategy, advertising approach (including social media), and multi-scenario cash flow projections. The plan also addresses implementation timelines, contingency risks, and the critical operational balance between course rigor and participant safety.
- Introduction and Market Overview: Market demand context for survival course training
- Situational Analysis and Market Summary: Demographics, needs, trends, and market growth
- SWOT Analysis and Competition: Internal strengths and weaknesses, competitive landscape
- Product Offerings and Keys to Success: Course descriptions, pricing tiers, and success factors
- Marketing Strategy and Program: Target markets, positioning, advertising, and pricing
- Financials and Cash Flow Projections: Three-scenario revenue forecasts for each course
- Controls, Implementation, and Contingency Planning: Oversight, timeline, and worst-case risk assessment
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What makes this paper effective
- The plan follows a clear, professional marketing plan structure that moves logically from situational analysis through strategy to financials and contingency planning, making it easy to follow for both academic and practical audiences.
- It grounds market claims in cited research, using industry-specific sources (Hurst, 2006; Friedland, 2012) to substantiate demand for survival training rather than relying on assertion alone.
- The use of structured tables for competitive analysis, course offerings, and multi-scenario cash flow projections adds analytical rigor and makes quantitative information immediately accessible.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper demonstrates effective integration of a SWOT framework into a business marketing context. By explicitly categorizing internal strengths and weaknesses alongside external opportunities and threats, the author shows how a strategic tool can directly inform subsequent marketing decisions — for example, linking the identified threat of economic downturn to contingency planning later in the document.
Structure breakdown
The paper opens with a brief introduction establishing market context, then moves into a formal situational analysis covering market demographics, needs, trends, and growth. A SWOT analysis and competitive landscape review follow, leading into product offerings, pricing, and marketing strategy. The plan concludes with financial projections presented in three scenarios, and closes with controls, implementation notes, and contingency planning — mirroring a standard professional marketing plan format.
Introduction and Market Overview
"There are no second chances in Mother Nature's survival course." — Robin Lydenburg, 1999
Manmade and natural disasters can strike at any time, and the growing popularity of television shows such as Survivorman and Doomsday Preppers is evidence that many people are interested in knowing what to do when emergencies occur in order to improve their chances of survival. A growing body of research confirms that knowledge of, and training related to, disaster and terrorism survival skills and survival planning are important for private citizens as well as organizations, especially in the post-September 2001 work-life environment. Today, private citizens and organizational employee assistance programs are increasingly seeking out the survival course training that will be needed to survive manmade and natural disasters, as discussed further below.
Situational Analysis and Market Summary
Recent disasters and terrorist incidents — such as the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, the World Trade Center bombing in 1993, the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina — clearly indicate that individual survival skill ability was lacking (Hurst, 2006). The enormity of these natural and manmade disasters was so severe that people who were not directly victimized by them were still harmed in ways that caused shock, stress, personal loss, and physical and mental injury (Hurst, 2006). Consequently, virtually anyone may be interested in survival skills training.
Market Demographics
The profile for the typical consumer consists of (a) everyone who is concerned about improving their chances for survival following a manmade or natural disaster, especially those living in close geographic proximity, and (b) companies wanting to provide survival training for their employees as part of an employee assistance program (Hurst, 2006).
Geographics. The company is geographically situated in the Pacific Northwest on 100 acres of wilderness.
Demographics. Both private and corporate clients of all ages and both genders in the geographic area of interest will be targeted. Targeting corporate clients is congruent with current trends indicating a growing number of companies are offering employee assistance programs that include a survival course component (Hurst, 2006). According to Hurst, "Professionals need to become expert at training and consulting with individuals and organizations on the critical skills necessary to survive and recover from a disaster or terrorist attack and build productive lives and workplaces in the aftermath" (2006, p. 14). An important point made by Hurst is the need to extend survival course training to all employees, irrespective of their positions or physical limitations. People in wheelchairs or with other physical limitations also want to maximize their chances for survival post-disaster, and these participants will be expected to complete the same coursework as their peers to the extent they are able. The five main components of survival skills and survival planning training include the following major topics:
1. Learning the psychology of survival;
2. Understanding the "survival" blueprint;
3. Surviving different environments;
4. Creating a survival plan and kits; and
5. Simulating a survival situation (Hurst, 2006, p. 14).
Market Needs
There is a growing demand for survival courses across a wide range of applications and settings. For example, the oil and gas industry requires all employees to complete training at the Gulf Technical and Safety Training Centre in Abu Dhabi in order to be permitted to work in offshore facilities. This two-day offshore survival course includes hands-on disaster management training as well as firefighting training (Baxter, 2010). Likewise, in El Paso, Texas, all teachers are required to complete the Adult Civil Defense Survival Course as part of their employment agreement (Rose, 2001).
Market Trends
This is an interesting period in the survival training industry. Although the world did not face the calamitous end predicted by many for December 21, 2012, the flurry of survival training offerings that emerged in response may face challenging times ahead without some aggressive marketing.
Market Growth
In general, demand for survival courses has increased in recent years, due in large part to the doomsday predictions leading up to December 21, 2012 as well as the culture of fear that has developed among some American consumers in the post-September 11, 2001 United States (Rose, 2011). Even though the world did not end as predicted, there are plenty of other manmade and natural disasters waiting to affect humankind in the future, and there will likely be a modest increase in both the number of survival course providers and the scope and content they offer.
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